Silence is but a word
by mactunes
Summary: Harry had turned into a silent boy during the summer, can he be rescued? AU Probably slash, HPSS, no promises.
1. Chapter 1

**Title:** Silence is but a word

**Notes:** Work in Progress. No idea what pairings yet but I think I have an idea in there, I think I see the plot surfacing, I think it might be slash if you squint.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own this story of Harry Potter, it belongs to J.K. Rowling.

**Summary:** Harry had turned into a silent boy during the summer, can he be rescued? AU Probably slash, HPSS, no promises.

It was just like any other ordinary day. The sun was glaring very brightly. The landscape in Surrey was kept in its pristine state, especially along Privet Drive. On such a nice, hot and sunny day, most people usually love to do outdoor activities, trying to get as much sun as possible as well as working on their tan.

However on this occassion, on this high noon, where the sun is at its hottest, everyone in the neighbourhood was inside searching for a cold relief as the temperature was uncomfortably high and the air itself was very dry. There was one kid, one very skinny kid, who was still outside under the glaring hot sun, doing some weeding in the garden. Someone should have told the boy that to be out in such burning heat were to court trouble in the form of heatstroke. One such person was about to bravely venture out to do so when a bulky boy came out in a flower-printed parasol and punched the boy in the back. With the boy sprawled ungracefully on the flower beds he was tending to, the fat boy uncaringly dragged the unconscious boy towards the house. As this happened in the household, on such a hot day, no one was going to protest, thinking that that would be a good lesson for the small kid to learn not to be out under the hot sun.

The small boy was none other than Harry Potter. The boy who didn't know he was a wizard until he was eleven years old, an orphan living with his aunt's family. The bulky boy, or the fat boy, was Dudley Dursley, Harry's cousin.

Dudley left Harry lying on the kitchen floor. When Harry came awake later, Petunia Dursley screamed at him for drawing attention for working in the garden. Harry just took it with a pinch of salt since it was Petunia's order that he was to work in the garden earlier in the morning.

Mrs Dursley was venting her anger on Harry as she was frustrated that her Dudders had to go on a diet under the threats of that school nurse. The school nurse had insisted that Dudley was on a yellow alert health warning and would report the Dursleys to the child abuse authorities for over-feeding their child.

Therefore, with the impending threat hanging over their head, the whole Dursleys household was now on a strict diet regime to support Dudley on this almost hopeless venture. Mealtimes were a torture for those not needing this diet regime, especially for young Harry Potter. Dudley at least got to have two portions of broth or vegetables soup. Harry was only given half a portion. This was hard on Harry as a growing boy needed a lot of nutrients. He hardly got to eat anything during the day as the Dursleys gave him a lot of chores to do around the house. The chores seemed neverending. For all his painful efforts to finish the work on time, he only got a glass of water with very watery porridge in the morning, a slice of bread and another glass of water during lunch and half portion of what the Dursleys had for dinnertime. It was a wonder that Harry was not dehydrated from all the lack of liquids nor was he malnourished from lack of proper balance diet. Then again, he looked like a hale and hearty teenage boy.

Through the progress of this summer holidays, Harry had turned into a very quiet boy. He didn't even utter a single word. He had been speaking less and less during the last weeks of the school term since Sirius fell through the Veil.

He had a way of making people understand him without making a sound. Almost like a pyschic. Things get done without him lifting his wand to say the spell. Silent, wandless magic. The Ministry didn't even know that magic had been performed in number four, Privet Drive, since the day Harry had arrived back for the summer holidays.

It was almost like the first time he did magic when he was a kid. Things flew on its own. Things started on its own. Food were magically prepared. Dudley was a good boy then. He would watch Harry performed something magical and cheered him with clapping. However, this moment of camaraderie was broken by the Dursleys adults. They hated the fact that they were forced to bring up this nephew, no matter what they do, they couldn't give the boy up for orphanage, or for adoption, or to throw him away. They did tried to dump him, but somehow, the kid managed to arrive home before they were back. It was freaky. They didn't want their kid to be contaminated by whatever freakiness in the boy. That was the reason Harry stayed in the cupboard under the stairs before the Hogwarts letter arrived. They were stressing the fact that Harry was not normal to their son.

Curious be the fact that magic was never detected until one House Elf came to create chaos just before Harry's second year at Hogwarts. Magic was always there even before the Hogwarts letter first came to Privet Drive. Magic was always present during Harry's summer holidays. There was a query once on how the underage magic usage was regulated by the Ministry of Magic. No answers were forthcoming at all.


	2. Surprised Side Effects

**Title:** Silence is but a word

**Chapter Two:** Surprised Side Effect

**Disclaimer:** I do not own this story of Harry Potter, it belongs to J.K. Rowling.

**Summary**: Harry had turned into a silent boy during the summer, can he be rescued? HP SLASH, in case you don't know what it means, it's male/male.

"Albus! We do not need to pander to Harry Potter's whims. It is not safe at the Grimmauld Place nor is it even safe at The Burrows. One of my sources told me that there were people monitoring closely the comings and goings of The Burrows. Their owl posts were compromised. The only post that was virtually undetected was your post via your phoenix, Albus. The Burrows is no longer safe for the Potter boy to visit. If we inform the family and they take protective measures which are bound to be visible, all the Dead Eaters will know that we have spies in their rank, and they will start sweeping through their ranks which will definitely compromise any of my source providers." Severus paused for effect.

"That would be prudent. What about Grimmauld Place? Why wouldn't Harry be safe? He is now the owner of the place since Sirius Black had bequeath the place to Harry in his will. The first of its kind that the Black Estate was not passed on to a Black."

"That, Albus, we would have to be cautious at this point. One cranky house elf by the name of Kreacher, had been informing Bellatrix of the Order's movements. Black should have known better than to give such a vague order to the manipulative house elf, especially since the said house elf held Black in such disdainful disrespect. Since Black's fall through the Veil, Kreacher was free until the next master of the Black Estate calls on him. Any promises made with the deceased master are now null and void. Grimmauld Place is now visible to all. Even if you were to ask Potter now to allow the place to be the Order's headquarter, the location is already compromised. The order must move to a new location, which I assumed you had a back-up place." Severus stopped his ranting to quench his thirst from elucidating one stringent point.

Professor Dumbledore immediately replied that he had in fact moved the Order to another safe place.

"Do you need to know the location?"

"No, don't give to me yet. My Occlumency barrier seems to be a bit weak at the moment. I don't trust myself with new information at the moment as I don't think I can occlude new information now."

"How is that, Severus?" Professor Dumbledore leaned in anxiously. It won't do for their spy in Voldemort's Inner Circles to be exposed. Neither would it be good if Severus Snape were unable to occlude his mind as it would put the members of the Order in a very precarious position.

"I will not compromise the Order, Albus." Severus glared at Albus long and hard until Professor Dumbledore had to break the contact by looking away.

Silence resided in the room. Professor Dumbledore took this time to look around the room. It was tastefully well furnished. The walls were painted in dark blue, the colours of dark night, with sprinkles of white spots that blink if stared hard enough. The furnitures were natural wood colour. The floor was uncovered by carpets. The bed was a four-posters design and the bedspread was in royal blue and white. And then, there is a window, looking out towards the lake. Professor Dumbledore silently contemplated the room of which its occupant had redecorated with his wand while lying abed.

"Then, what is causing this, Severus?" Professor Dumbledore asked on seeing Severus Snape calmed down from his outburst.

"I do not know. I have been researching on this since the summer holiday starts. It made me weaker, day by day, bit by bit. I have not been attending any meetings during this period given that I was abed, sick with something undefinable, as you can see for yourself."

"I really think that you should consider going to St. Mung's for further insp-"

"No, Albus. I will not feel safe there. An occassional visit from Poppy will do. Any medical consultations need, Poppy can do so outside my room. I will not allow any other medi-personnel other than Poppy to get into my rooms. However, if I don't stay in my rooms, my sources would not know where to find me."

"I suppose you know best, Severus. I will leave you now to continue with your latest project." On saying that, Professor Dumbledore waved his hand all over the room.

"I'm bored. I don't have anything else to do. All current journals were finished long time ago. I had pratically read each books in my mini library countless times. Madame Pince is on holiday and I can't even order for books to be brought into my room. I can't even walk out of my room to browse through the libray. I can't even brew any potions, much less experiments with potions. All I could do is work out theories on paper which doesn't tell me if it works." Severus petulantly complained.

"Poppy means best for you."

"I know. I just wants this feeling of hopelessness to go away."

"So do I. I mean it as you getting well soon."

"I have a feeling that this would clear up by July 31st. Don't ask me why but something tells me so. I rely on my instincts to survive. I don't discredit what it tells me."

Surprise was briefly shown on Professor Dumbledore's face before he could masked it. Severus Snape saw it.

"Is July the 31st a special day?"

"It is Harry Potter's birthday." Professor Dumbledore solemnly stated.

"WHAT?" Severus Snape was flabbergasted.


	3. Chapter 3

Nose buried in the tome of "Hogwarts: A History", Hermione was pondering over the terse owl post that was just delivered by Harry's white owl, Hedwig. Harry hardly ever writes more than three lines. All the letters were all the same.

"dear HErmione Love,  
Please don't worry about ME. I'M fine. Miss yoU. TakE care.  
love, harry."

No matter how long a letter she wrote to Harry, all she got were these four little sentences in reply. Boys will be boys. However, Harry had wrote such nice letters during the previous summers but these _new_ letters sounded very stiff and they were written in such funny looking printed letters. It almost didn't look like the way Harry would write his letters, but the letter "H" was a very prominent dead giveaway. Harry always write the letter "H" in a certain Harry's way. Hermione just wasn't sure what was wrong with Harry. Maybe he needed something but the muggles he was staying at were looking at all his correspondence. Maybe Harry needed some time alone. Hermione knew she had to stop thinking about this. Professor Dumbledore said that it was dangerous for Harry to even step foot outside of that little Whinging village in Surrey. The Weasleys couldn't even invite Harry Potter to The Burrows as the Death Eaters had been very active.

Hermione's dark thoughts were broken when Ron came rushing into the girls' room in The Burrows. Hermione had arrived just the day before to spend some time with the Weasleys as her parents were away for an extended seminar on dentisry in America.

"Hey, Hermione! Stop hiding your pretty little nose in that dusty old tome of my dad's! We need a hand here for some of those old tomes we just received in some of the boxes that was just delivered. They are from one of my very distant relative who had bequethed these to dad. You would be interested in some of the titles of the books. They sounded a little too dark to me."

"Really?" Hermione dropped the "dusty old tome" with a thud, not noticing that Harry's note had fallen to the floor. She eagerly followed Ron to the living room.

"Hermione, could you help me braid my hair? I would love to hav-" Ginny walked into the empty room just seconds after Ron and Hermione left. Her words faltered.

"Oh, she's not here. What's that?" On noticing a white note lying on the floor between her bed and Hermione's. She picked up and recognised Harry's writings at once.

"Love? Hermione? Harry loves Hermione? No! I don't believe this! No! I won't believe this!" Ginny cried in agony. Crushing the letter in her hands, she sat down on her bed blankly.

After several moments, Ginny opened the letter again and the words on the note were all crushed, except for the letters writing in capitals, all the rest were all unreadable. The letters she saw were "HE L P ME I'M M U T E." She stared at these letters, stunned for the moment.

She immediately scrambled up from the bed and started running towards where all the sound of clatters were, which was in the living room as all the Weasleys were now unpacking the boxes that had arrived in their humble abode.

"Hermione! Did you see this? Harry was asking for help!" Ginny screamed at the top of her lungs and waved the note in the air. Everyone stopped and looked at her stunned.

Hermione hurriedly came and snatched the note from Ginny. She immediately saw what Ginny meant and gasped, "Oh no! Harry can't speak!"


End file.
